Annie, Meet Auggie
by ComicalEpiphanies
Summary: Danielle has plans for Annie. Poor Auggie just wanted pickles. Auggie/Annie friendship. First person Annie. One-shot.


**A/N: I started this with the intent that it would be a sequel to CUPID VS. THE CIA, but it got away from me, so this has absolutely no connection to my previous one-shot. With that said, I just want to thank all of you for the great response I got to CUPID. I hope I get a turnout as good or better with this one-shot. And yes, it is a one-shot. Maybe I'll do a sequel, but I doubt it. I think there will be more than one of these types of stories soon and I don't want to be a repeat. Now, without further ado, I present:**

Annie, Meet Auggie

"How was the date?"

I jump and splash hot Earl Grey all down my new shirt. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" I cry, rubbing my blouse vigorously to no avail. Tea has a habit of staining.

At least he has the decency to look vaguely ashamed. "I thought you saw me coming."

"How could I? I was—" I stop short. Sometimes I forget my best friend's blind.

He doesn't though. He gives me one of his patented half-smiles and cocks his head a bit to the left. I guess he's heard something.

I'm right. A second later, Joan Campbell, our boss, is beside us. Luckily Auggie's head tilt is enough of a warning and I don't spill more of my tea. From the look on Joan's face, I'm going to need all the caffeine I can get.

It's lunch before Auggie gets the chance to corner me again, this time in the bullpen's kitchenette.

"Come on, details," he orders without preamble. He reaches for his lunch, the only one left as everyone else has already snagged his or hers.

"About what?" I ask, biting into my tomato-on-rye. Auggie raises his eyebrow as he prepares his roast beef with cheddar. He knows I know what he wants. Sometimes he reminds me a bit of my grandmother. She was just like him, a gossiper without gossiping. That doesn't really make sense, but you know what I mean. Those all-ear types.

"Well, for one, he eats spaghetti with a knife."

Auggie looks confused. "Like he twirled around it or something?"

"You don't want to know."

Auggie grins and slaps his bread slices together. "Oh I really do."

I can't help but return his grin. "First he twirled then he cut. I've never been so disgusted with humanity."

"It couldn't have been that bad." Auggie doesn't believe me, but I'm totally not joking. Whatever-his-name-was had no table manners or social skills. Really, where did my sister come up with these guys?

Does she put an ad in the paper or something? "All guys with boring jobs and terrible social skills call Danielle Brooks at 224.8764."

Once again, I send him a you-better-believe-it eyebrow-raise (even if he doesn't catch it) complete with a huff from over my dwindling sandwich. "I'm never sitting through another one of my sister's 'perfect date dinners' again."

This time it's me on the receiving end of an oh-really look.

OOOOOOO

"You promised! No more setups." I'm ashamed to admit, I'm practically begging.

Danielle looks at me out of the corner of her eye as she checks her children's homework. "I'm sure you'll like this one."

"Can't I just sit this one out? I'll watch the kids while you make sure he knows how to eat ratatouille." God, that sounded pathetic, even to me. I'm really scratching the bottom, and Danielle knows it too. She glares at me again.

"No. This is the last one, I swear." She turns to the girls. "Come on, time for bed."

"But Mommy, we don't wanna go to bed. We want to meet Auntie Annie's new boy."

I can't help but crack a smile. That is until Danielle says, "You can see him later, okay?"

"Later?" I ask as soon as the girls run off, probably to appeal to their father. "You said—"

"I know," she interrupts, "but maybe this time you won't be so cold and scare him away."

"Me? Scare him away?" I struggle and fail to keep the indignation out of my voice. "How do I scare him away?"

Danielle doesn't reply. Instead, she says, "I promise you'll like him. I ran into him at the grocery store and he apologized."

_Great_, I think, _so he's a wimp. _I don't say it allowed, though. I'm too smart for that. Danielle would probably blow a gasket. She gets angry when I make fun of chivalry for some reason.

Actually, I don't have time to say anything because the doorbell rings.

"That'll be him!" she practically squeaks. At least one of us is looking forward to this. "Come on," she orders.

I sigh and put down the wine I've just poured myself. I clear my mind like my instructors at the Farm taught me and focus on smiling. I know that if I don't at least pretend to enjoy this date, Danielle will never stop setting me up.

"Welcome!" I hear Danielle say.

"Hello," a voice replies. An all too familiar voice.

It's a good thing I put down my wine, because I probably would have dropped it. Elle, I'm going to kill you.

"Right this way. Careful, there's a toy. Here, let me get that out of your way. You're right on time, dinner is almost done."

Shit! They're coming into the kitchen! Run! I catch myself just before I cram myself into the pantry. This is ridiculous. I'm a trained CIA spy. I need a bigger hiding place.

Too late.

"Annie, this is Auggie Anderson. Auggie, this is my sister Annie Walker."

"What are you doing here?" The words tumble out of my mouth before I can stop them. Danielle's head snaps to me and she looks ready to kill. Her eyes are all slanty.

"Annie!" she reprimands.

Auggie smiles in his normal charming way, but I can see a hint of awkwardness. "Hi, Annie."

"Wait." Danielle's looking between us, surprise etched on her face. "You two know each other?"

"Yes, we are, um-" okay, I have to admit, I have no clue what the Agency's policy on telling family about coworkers is (which is why I've never really talked about Auggie. Or about anyone else from work, for that matter). Good thing my go-to-guy on CIA policy is here. Well, really bad, because him being here is the reason I've got the issue in the first place…

Auggie saves me without being asked. "We work together."

"Really?" Danielle sounds skeptical. I guess she's wondering what a blind guy could possibly do in a museum. Auggie seems to notice that too, because he adds:

"Well, sometimes. I'm on a retainer. Out-house lawyer, really, for the," I can tell he's searching for my cover job. I told it to him once, but I can only hope his memory is as sharp as the Agency requires it to be. "Smithsonian. They call me when they need international contracts. For exhibits and stuff, you know."

It's hard to imagine Auggie ever being a field agent – a tech head always, but not a real spy. The blind factor, even when you forget it's there, is still big enough to shout DESK JOB. Then you hear him spout out such a fast cover and you know why the Agency kept him on even after his accident. He is good at deception. And attraction, for that matter, but that's beside the point.

"Out-house?" Danielle still seems unsure. She just won't accept a thing on face value, never has, never will. It used to drive me nuts when I was younger and she'd catch me in the pantry with a bag of marshmallows. She would never believe that I just wanted to squish them, no matter how truthful it was (which it was, by the way. I still don't like marshmallows, just squishing them).

"It's what we call them," I cover. "Because they're not in-house. It's kind of an office joke."

"Auntie Annie! Auntie Annie! Daddy says we can stay if we don't tell Mommy he said we could!" my youngest niece of six, Becky, yells, charging into the room. Her older sister, Helen, isn't far behind.

"You weren't supposed to shout it! Now Mommy knows!" Helen shouts back.

I don't think I've ever been more relieved to see them.

I can tell Michael's going to get it tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if I found him on the couch tomorrow morning, but for now, Danielle is playing it calm-ish. "Excuse me for a moment, Auggie. Annie, will you please get the vegetables out of the oven?"

"Are you Auntie Annie's new boy?" Helen asks as soon as her mother is out of the room.

I can't control the flush I feel creeping up my back at her words, and for once I'm glad Auggie can't see me. I try to respond, but he's beaten me to it.

"I'm your auntie's friend," he bends down to her eight year-old height and sticks out his hand, "Auggie."

"Hello. My name is Helen Brooks." Helen points to her sister. "That's my sister, Becky Brooks."

"You have to speak up, Becky," I say as I put the tray of baked veggies on the counter and look around for the mozzarella. Where did Danielle put it this time? I saw her carrying it around with the cucumber, right? Ah yeah, there it is.

I look up again as Helen asks, "What's that for? It looks like that thing Daddy uses when he's teaching. Is that what it is?"

Auggie holds up his pointer/cane. "This? Sort of. See the light?" He turns it on. "It tells me if I'm going to run into anything."

"Why can't you just look?" Becky has come out from behind her sister (where she hid after I told her to say hi) and is looking at him confusedly. My niece is a smart girl, but she's too young to really grasp the implications of Auggie's unfocused stare.

"Shh! He's blind!" Helen half-whispers to her younger sister.

I look up again. I want to see how Auggie handles this. He's doing very well, for a bachelor, actually. Not that I'd ever tell him that. He knows he's good with the ladies already; he doesn't need any more encouragement.

"What's that mean?"

Auggie's smile is as charming as ever. "It means I can't look where I'm going."

Becky still seems confused, but I think he's explained blindness as well as he can. It will hit her eventually. She'll probably wake Danielle up in the middle of the night to ask another question. That'll serve her right for setting me up with my best friend.

"How does it stop you?" From the look on Helen's face, I'm guessing she's been trying to puzzle this out since Becky interrupted.

I have to admit, I've kind of wondered the same thing. Every once in a while, I see that he's hooked his Bluetooth into the pointer, but not always. How does it act as a normal blind man's cane? I stop slicing the cheese to watch.

From the amused smirk Auggie's shooting me, I guess he's noticed. Luckily he doesn't comment.

"It shakes when I get near something, see?" He holds out the handle of the pointer for Helen to grab. "Point it at the floor. Feel that? Now get a little closer."

"It shook harder!" she exclaims. Well, that answered that question.

"Let me try!" Becky squeals. She's lost all shyness at the thought of a new toy.

"Careful! Mr. Auggie needs that," I say as Becky makes a swipe for the pointer.

"It's okay. I doubt they could break it, even if they tried." Auggie stands up and walks until his hand hits the side of the island counter. "I've dropped it down a flight of stairs plenty of times and it still works fine."

I raise an eyebrow as I finish slicing the mozzarella and begin laying them over the veggies. "How hard were the stairs?"

Auggie's smile grows and he shakes his head a bit in amusement. His smile is charming, as usual.

Charming. The adjective sparks the anger I'd temporarily forgotten.

He's here because he's charming. He's here because he agreed to let my sister set him up with me!

"What are you doing here?" I bark. Auggie looks surprised at my sudden outburst, but I don't give him a chance to respond. "You knew she was doing it to set me up!" I forget about the dish I'm preparing and focus all my attention on the guy in front of me. "And you still agreed! What were you doing at our grocery store in the first place?"

Auggie's gaze is a little too high, but he's facing me head on for once. "I'm sorry. Next time I run out of pickles, I'll call to make sure none of your family's shopping, shall I?"

Wow. That was the first time I've seen Auggie pissed. Why is he so angry, I am the one being set up with my best friend!

I'm about to reply when my sister reappears. "Did you put the spaghetti in the pot?"

Instantly, all tension evaporates from our bodies. Auggie turns toward her voice as I say cordially, "I was just about to."

OOOOOOOO

"So, Auggie," Michael, my brother-in-law, stumbles over Auggie's nickname but recovers smoothly, "Where did you go to school?"

Auggie turns toward Michael's voice and wipes his mouth delicately. He has good table manners. I've never really noticed that before. "On the east coast, mostly. I went straight into the military after high school, though."

"Really?" Danielle is too surprised. Perfect. I'm going to die of embarrassment right here and now. How many probing questions can she and her husband think up?

Auggie, however, doesn't seem phased, or even ruffled. I wonder if he knows he's about to be on the receiving end of the Spanish Inquisition. "I had half a tour in Iraq before I ran into a grenade."

He's so flippant about it. If I hadn't gotten him drunk one night a month ago, I would have assumed he didn't even care that that grenade had changed his life. I don't think he remembers telling me though. We were both really drunk.

Danielle gasps much too obviously for my taste. When did I get so sensitive? Auggie doesn't give any outward sign of feeling the awkward tension I'm reading in the room. "After getting sent home, I studied at a small college in Massachusetts no one's really heard of. Law, mostly."

Once again, I'm impressed at how smoothly he lies. He has just the right amount of truth that even I find myself believing him, even if I had to stuff more eggplant in my mouth when he said no one had ever heard of MIT.

"What firm do you work at now?" Michael inquires while Auggie takes another bite of ratatouille. I notice he twirls his spaghetti like an Italian. I'll never admit it, but I am kind of jealous. I've never been able to perfect the spoon-angle.

"I'm a lowly associate at a big firm in D.C.," Auggie replies after taking a sip of wine. He hasn't really answered the question, but Danielle's already come up with another.

"How did you and my baby sister meet?"

I widen my eyes at her and mouth "NO!" But as usual, she ignores me.

"I'm afraid I ran into her." Auggie grins and turns toward me. He's asking me to go with it, I can tell. "We were both caring an arm load of documents."

I steel myself and take the thread. "We picked up our files and went on our way," I finish quickly. I take another swallow of wine.

"That's it?" Danielle sounds disappointed. I bet she was hoping for something a little more romantic, but Auggie handed me the reins of our back-story and I'm not going to make her any smugger than she already is.

Auggie shrugs and twitches his head a bit. Surely he's not going to elaborate? "Is that a salad I smell?" he says.

OOOOOOOOO

"I'll get that." Auggie takes the desert plates out of my hands swiftly carries them to into the kitchen, nearly banging into the wall in the process. My heart leaps for a second but he manages to steer clear. I watch him place the plates gently on the counter. He turns back to me and grins. "See?"

"Now you get to help me clean them," I reply, coming over to stand in front of the sink. Danielle had to go deal with my nieces (they were supposed to go to bed when we started dinner, but as usual, they hadn't) and she took Michael with her. I think – no, know – that she is trying to get us alone. Danielle and her damn cupid tendencies!

"Don't you have a dishwasher?"

I glance over at the tall tech-operator. "Yes, but these are good china. They have to be washed by hand. Here," I toss him a fresh rag from the cabinet. "You dry and stack, I'll wash."

We're almost done with the dishes when Auggie breaks the semi-pregnant silence. "I didn't make the connection until I smelled your perfume, you know."

I stop scrubbing the coffee cup and look at him. "What?"

"I didn't realize that the Danielle I ran into was _your_ Danielle. If I had, I would have told you."

I don't know how to respond. What am I supposed to say? I settle with, "I know."

"So you forgive me?"

I touch the wet cup to the back of his hand and he takes it. "I guess," I mumble. Then a thought pops into my head. "I will if you promise that we act just as we normally do when you catch your cab."

Auggie's eyebrows push together slightly. "How's normal?"

"No kissing."

He looks startled. "I could have kissed you?"

I realize what I've said too late. I have to cover by flicking some of the soapy water at him. He flinches and for a moment, I regret hitting him, but then, out of nowhere, he is smiling and I am wiping dawn bubbles off my face.

OOOOOOO

I didn't know it at the time, but apparently my sister had seen it all. I guess that was why she clicked her tongue knowingly when Auggie didn't kiss me goodnight.

**

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A/N: There we go, the first Auggie meets the family! Reviews are always welcome.**


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